At the church where I serve, we are in the middle of a
sermon series entitled “Invite”. During this series we are looking at several
events from history where Jesus engaged and invited those who were far from Him
to follow Him and live in relationship with Him. During this series, we are
going to discover what Jesus said to invite those who were far from Him to follow
Him and live in relationship with Him. During this series, we are going to
discover how Jesus said what He said to invite those who were far from Him to
follow Him and live in relationship with Him. And as we go through this series,
our hope and prayer is that God would move by the power of the Holy Spirit in
our heads, hearts, and hands in a way that equips and empowers us to follow the example of Jesus when it comes to inviting
those who are far from Jesus to follow Jesus and live in relationship with Jesus.
This week, I would like for us to look
at an event from history that is recorded in a section of an account of Jesus
life that is recorded for us in the Bible called the gospel of Luke. And it
is in a section of the gospel of Luke that we see Luke give us a front row seat
to a confrontation that reveals a timeless truth about how Jesus engaged and
invited someone who was far from Him to follow Him. So
let’s discover that timeless truth together, beginning in Luke 14:1-6:
It happened
that when He went into the house of one of the leaders of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread, they were
watching Him closely. 2 And there in front of Him was a man
suffering from dropsy. 3 And Jesus answered and spoke to the lawyers
and Pharisees, saying, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?"
4 But they kept silent. And He took hold of him and healed him, and
sent him away. 5 And He said to them, "Which one of you will
have a son or an ox fall into a well, and will not immediately pull him out on
a Sabbath day?" 6 And they could make no reply to this.
Luke begins to give us a front row seat to this
confrontation by providing for us the context in which this confrontation would
take place. Luke explained that Jesus was invited over to the home of one of
the Pharisees one Sabbath. As we have talked about in this series, the
Pharisees were the self righteous religious leaders of Jesus day. And as a
leader of the Pharisees, this man would have been someone who had a great deal
of status in the community. He would have been one of the social elites of the
community.
After the service at the synagogue, a natural
practice in the culture of the day was to invite one’s friends over for a meal.
This meal would be time of connection where people would invite those who were
of a similar social status to reinforce their relationships with one another
and to honor one another. These were meals that served to help those who had
social status be seen in a way that reinforced their social status.
In addition to Jesus and the Pharisees, Luke
explained that a man was present at the meal who had dropsy. Now dropsy was,
and still is, a medical condition that is marked by a swelling of the body due
to retention of excessive liquid from a person’s lymph glands. Dropsy is a very
ugly and unattractive disease that can be extremely painful and is ultimately
disabling. When Luke says that
the Pharisees were watching Him closely, he is revealing for us the reality
that this group of self righteous religious people were hoping to catch Jesus
behaving in a way that would violate the religious rules of the day so that
they would be able to discredit Jesus’ status and credibility among the people.
Luke then explained that Jesus, aware that He was
being watched closely by this group of self-righteous religious leaders,
responded by asking them a question: "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath,
or not?" The Pharisees, however, refused to answer the question but
instead remained silent. You see, the Pharisees wanted the focus to be on Jesus
and whether or not He would break one of the religious rules.
Upon receiving no answer to His question, Jesus
miraculously healed the man and sent him on his way. And as the man who had
been miraculously healed by Jesus went on his way, Jesus asked the self
righteous religious leaders a second and much more personal question: "Which
one of you will have a son or an ox fall into a well, and will not immediately
pull him out on a Sabbath day?"
Jesus here was making reference to a command from
God that is recorded for us in a section of a letter in the Old Testament of
the Bible, called the book of Deuteronomy. In Deuteronomy 22:4, we see God give
the following command to the Jewish people:
"You
shall not see your countryman's donkey or his ox fallen down on the way, and
pay no attention to them; you shall certainly help him to raise them up.
Luke then explained that the religious leaders could
make no reply to this. The religious leaders could make no reply to this
because Jesus had exposed the reality that for these religious leaders, keeping
God’s rules regarding the Sabbath took precedent over keeping God’s command to demonstrate
God’s mercy. Jesus exposed the reality that these religious leaders had set
aside God’s command to be merciful to instead focus exclusively on a
painstakingly perfect Sabbath observance.
Jesus also revealed the reality that one of the
basic aspects of the Sabbath is to demonstrate mercy. You see the Sabbath was a
time to reflect of God’s position as our Creator and God’s provision and mercy
to His people as their provider. And the Sabbath was to be an opportunity to
demonstrate the mercy of God in a way that reflected God to those around them
who did not know God. After healing a man and breaking one of their rules,
Jesus then began to tell a parable.
Tomorrow we will look at this parable together...
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